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Jun 25, 2013 at 12:01 AMJun 25, 2013 at 1:02 PM

By Lou GaulCalkins Media Film Critic

“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” didn’t experience much box-office magic when it opened March 15.

The PG-13 farce, starring Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi and Jim Carrey as cheesy magicians, grossed just $22.5 million before disappearing from theaters. “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” ($28.99, DVD; $35.99, Blu-ray Disc; June 23), which was budgeted at a modest $30 million, may find a more appreciative audience when it arrives in stores.

For Carell, who owned a Mattel magic kit as a child and performed illusions in his parents’ basement, magic and comedy are often parallel.

“I guess I see comedy as a sort of magic, because it either works or it doesn’t,” Carell said in an interview in the British magazine Total Film. “You are creating an illusion. You’re tricking people, in a way.

“People will watch a movie or read a book and it’s going one way. When it goes a direction you don’t expect it to go, that’s when it makes you laugh.”

Most of “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” contains tricks that were filmed by cameras and could easily be manipulated to look real. “30 Rock” director Don Scardino makes his big-screen directing debut with this film, and he asked his Vegas friend, superstar magician David Copperfield, to create a real body-swap trick for Carell and Buscemi to perform.

“We made jokes about him at ‘30 Rock,’” Scardino said of Copperfield. “What surprised me was how absolutely generous he was and how forthcoming he was with his help and advice. You know, he’s not being paid anything. And he’s playing himself in the movie as well.”

The extras on the Blu-ray version of “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” include more than 45 minutes of special features, including a featurette (“Making Movie Magic With David Copperfield”), a gag reel, deleted scenes and alternate takes.

New discs arriving!

The following titles recently landed or are coming soon.

The offerings can be mail-ordered via amazon.com or moviesunlimited.com or rented via netflix.com. Some can be obtained via digital download.

“Hansel & Gretel Get Baked” ($26.99, DVD; $29.99, Blu-ray Disc; June 25) with Lara Flynn Boyle in an unrated stoner comedy about an evil witch who uses a magical blend of marijuana as bait for teen victims.

“The Host” ($29.99, DVD; $39.99, Blu-ray Disc; June 25) with Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, Max Irons and William Hurt in a PG-13 adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s novel about an unseen enemy threatening mankind by taking over the bodies of humans and erasing their minds. The extras include a making-of featurette (“Bringing the Host to Life”), commentary by Meyer and deleted scenes.

“Phantom” ($22.99, DVD; $29.99, Blu-ray Disc; June 25) with Ed Harris and David Duchovny in an R-rated thriller about a Soviet nuclear submarine that goes missing during the Cold War.

“Upside Down” ($34.99, Blu-ray 3-D, Blu-ray + DVD; June 25) with Kirsten Dunst and Jim Sturgess in a PG-13 sci-fi tale that’s set in an alternate universe and follows a young man fighting to be reunited with the long-lost girl of his dreams.

Documentary

“A Place at the Table” ($26.99, DVD; $29.99, Blu-ray Disc; June 25) with Jeff Bridges narrating an unsettling PG-rated documentary about hunger in America, a place where one out of four children doesn’t know where he or she is getting a next meal.

Television

“CSI: NY: The Ninth Season” ($64.99, DVD; June 25) with Gary Sinise and Sela Ward in a five-disc set with all episodes of the detective series from its ninth year.

“Kind Hearted Woman: A Film by David Sutherland” ($34.99, DVD; June 23) with director Sutherland creating a portrait of Robin Charboneau, a 32-year-old divorced single mother and Oglala Sioux woman living on North Dakota’s Spirit Lake Reservation. The filmmaker follows the subject for more than three years as she struggles to raise her two children, further her education, and heal from the sexual abuse she suffered as a child.

“Todd and the Book of Pure Evil: The Complete Second Season” ($19.99, DVD; June 25) with Jason Mewes in a two-disc set of the original series about a book that unleashes dark powers at a high school.

Family/children

“The Garfield Show: Pizza Dreams” ($14.99, DVD; June 25) with the fat cat voted favorite comic-strip character by Nickelodeon magazine readers in an animated tale that has him pledging to stop eating pizza.

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